By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)
Streaming Online
at the Victoria Film Festival
Get your pass here to view beginning Feb 5th, 2021
Note: Available to view for residents in British Columbia
Coral Ghosts mixes up two ideas, the need to reverse the damaging effects of climate change and preserve the past with still photography, into a rallying cry to reverse the damage done to the reefs around the world. This uphill challenge is tough. Marine biologist Dr. Thomas J. Goreau wants to save the life of more than one ocean. It’s not about Bikini Atoll, where this documentary begins. In an article on The Guardian, Eleanor Ainge Roy wrote, “Steve Palumbi, a professor in marine sciences at the university, said the effects of radiation poisoning on ocean life have never been studied in-depth, and his team’s initial research suggests it is ‘remarkably resilient’.”
Spongebob Squarepants would cry if he saw this work by Andrew Nisker. Not everyone recognizes the tie in of the fictional cartoon ocean world to real life. As for why some marine creatures survived the devastation (and didn’t mutate) while others haven’t is a mystery when the island was recently researched. I personally think it’s because some species returned many decades later after the amount of radiation in the bottom of the sea near these Marshall Islands levelled, even though it’ll still harm human life.
Continue reading “VFFOnline 2021: How to Give Life Back to Coral Ghosts”